A Mount Kisco man who claims that defective truck tires nearly caused a deadly crash is demanding $75,000 from a tire dealer.
Donald A. Lehman accused Tire Buys Inc., Mount Kisco, of negligence and failure to warn him about allegedly defective tires, in a complaint filed April 7 in Westchester Supreme Court.
He was so frightened by losing control of his truck last December on Saw Mill River Parkway, the complaint states, “he fully expected a crash to happen and saw his life pass before him in an instant.”
Neil Erbesh, the CEO of Tire Buys, did not immediately respond to a telephone message requesting his side of the story.
Lehman says he bought four Westlake radial tires for his 2003 Toyota Tundra in March 2021. A store employee recommended the tires, according to the complaint, and said they were warrantied for 40,000 miles.
He does not say how much he paid, but a set of four tires of a similar model sell online for about $470 to $525.
There were no problems for the first year or so, according to the complaint, but last fall, with about 15,000 miles on the tires, there were three incidents.
“Starting from a standstill, upon normal acceleration, the tires just spun with no traction,” the complaint states.
The last alleged incident was at the Chappaqua entrance to Saw Mill River Parkway. The road was damp, and when he accelerated the tires spun and the truck did not move initially as he tried to merge with fast-moving traffic.
Lehman says he went back to Tire Buys the next day and spoke with a manager. The manager measured the tires’ tread depths, according to the complaint, determined they were satisfactory, said he could return them to Westlake and advised Lehman to buy new tires.
Lehman went to a Brookfield, Connecticut tire store instead, where, he claims, a salesman said Westlake tires have been subject to many recalls and Tire Buy should have advised him that the tires do not hold traction in inclement weather.
Westlake Tires, manufactured by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. in China, have been recalled once, in 2007, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records.
The importer, Foreign Tire Sales in Union, New Jersey, had to recall 450,000 radial tires that Hangzhou Zhongce manufactured from 2004 through early 2006. The tires were sold for trucks, SUVs and vans under the Compass, Telluride, Westlake and YKS brands.
Accidents had been linked to the tire model, including one where two construction workers were killed and a third was injured.
Hangzhou Zhongce had stopped installing a safety device, NHTSA records show, that prevents tread separation.
The NHTSA had also received several complaints about the tires, mostly involving tread separation and tire blow outs.
According to the agency, 664 people were killed in 2020 in tire-related traffic accidents involving all brands.
The lawsuit does not directly connect the tires purchased in 2021 to the model recalled in 2007.
Lehman says Tire Buys should have known that Westlake tires do not grip the road properly, according to the complaint, and he says he would not have purchased the tires if he had been warned not to use them in inclement weather.
He is demanding $75,000 for restitution, damages and pain and suffering.
Lehman is represented by Manhattan attorney Eleanor Vale.
